What’s New in MathJax v2.6

MathJax v2.6 includes a number of new features, as well a more than 30 important bug fixes. The following are some of the highlights.

Features

  • Improved CommonHTML output. The CommonHTML output now provides the same layout quality and MathML support as the HTML-CSS and SVG output. It is on average 40% faster than the other outputs and the markup it produces are identical on all browsers and thus can also be pre-generated on the server via MathJax-node. The fast preview mechanism introduced in v2.5 continues to develop as a separate output as PreviewHTML and the fast-preview extension.
  • Accessibility improvements. We thank the AT community for their guidance, support, and feedback in our efforts towards making MathJax completely accessible to all users.
    • Screenreader compatibility. The new AssistiveMML extension enables compatibility with most MathML-capable screenreaders by inserting visually-hidden MathML alongside MathJax’s visual output. See screenreader support for details on the expected behavior as well as background on the limitations due to lack of web standards and browser/OS technology.
    • Accesssible UI. We have improved the accessibility of the MathJax menu to enable assistive technology users to easily access its features, cf. MathJax UI.
  • PlainSource Output. The new PlainSource output will revert the rendering back to the input format; in the case of MathML, the output will prefer TeX and AsciiMath from <annotation-xml> elements. This helps with accessibility and copy&paste of document fragments.
  • Semi-slim MathJax repository for bower. You can now use bower install components/MathJax to install a fork of MathJax without PNG fonts. Many thanks to @minrk from the IPython/Jupyter team and to the team at components!
  • MathJax via npm. You can now use npm install mathjax to install a copy of MathJax without PNG fonts.
  • Deprecated: MMLorHTML extension. We have deprecated the MMLorHTML extension. For a detailed guide on configuring MathJax to choose different outputs on different browsers, please see Automatic Selection of the Output Processor for more information.

Numerous bugs and issues have also been resolved; for a detailed listing please check the release milestone.

Interface

  • #938 Expose MathML for accessibility; cf. screenreader support.
  • #939 Make MathJax contextual menu properly accessible.
  • #1088 MathJax Menu: drop PNG images in menu.
  • #1210 Update MathZoom.js: global border-box support. Special thanks to @CalebKester
  • #1273 Improve handling of hash in URL.

HTML/SVG/nativeMML display

  • #1095 HTML-CSS output: prevent collapse of table borders.
  • #596 SVG Output: Fix overlapping equation labels in SVG output
  • #994 SVG Output: Change default blacker setting to 1.
  • #995 SVG output: fix baseline alignment issues.
  • #995 SVG output: fix failure to scale all but the first glyph in a fraction when useFontCache=false.
  • #1035 PreviewHTML output: fix fractions formatting in WebKit and IE.
  • #1233 SVG output: make maligngroup and malignmark produce no output.
  • #1282 HTML-CSS output: reduce “bumpiness” of focus outline.
  • #1314 HTML-CSS output: prevent clipping of extremely long strings.
  • #1316 SVG output: preserve non-breaking space in mtext elements.
  • #1332 HTML-CSS output: fix width calculations for mrows with embellished operators that could stretch but don’t actually.

TeX emulation

  • #567 Add macro for overparen and underparen to provide stretchy arcs above/below
  • #956 Simplify the mhchem extension to use multiscripts, cf. #1072.
  • #1028 Fix spacing in \alignedat.
  • #1194 Fix problem where automatic numbering affects \binom and friends.
  • #1199 Fix problem with dot delimiter not being recognized as a delimiter.
  • #1224 Handle braces properly in text mode when looking for matching math delimiters.
  • #1225 Fix \operatorname not ignoring \limits that follow immediately after.
  • #1229 Fix wrong spacing of trailing binary operators.
  • #1272 Fix spacing of \eqnarray environment.
  • #1295 Handle scriptlevel set on arrays via an mstyle node (affects \smallmatrix).
  • #1312 Improve heuristics for adding U+2061 (invisible function application).

Asciimath

MathML

  • #1072 Right-justify prescripts in mmultiscript elements (after clarification in MathML 3 editors’ draft); cf. #956.
  • #1089 Fix toMathML from changing <maligngroup> to <malign>
  • #1188 Fix mmultiscripts with odd number of post-scripts not rendering correctly.
  • #1231 Fix <math> element not being treated as an <mrow> for embellished operator spacing.
  • #1233 Make <maligngroup> and <malignmark> be self-closing in MathML input.
  • #1238 Fix Content MathML extension not handling namespace prefixes.
  • #1257 Improve mml3.js: better RTL support in HTML-CSS; improved IE/Edge compatibility.
  • #1323 Content-mathml extension: improve handling of empty Presentation MathML nodes.

Fonts

  • #928 Add data for stretchy U+2322 (FROWN), U+2323 (SMILE), and also U+2312 (ARC) to be aliases for the top and bottom parentheses. This enables stretchy constructions; cf. also #567.
  • #1211 Fix web font detection for Gyre-Pagella etc. in IE10+.
  • #1251 Fix primes in STIX-web font being too small in SVG output.

Localization

  • #1248 Updated locales thanks to the contributors at Translatewiki.net; activate locales for Bulgarian, Sicilian, Lithuanian, and Laki.

APIs

  • #1216 Add debugging tips to console output.

Misc.

  • #1074 Fix regression in v2.5 regarding MathPlayer on IE9.
  • #1036 Improve CDN rollover behavior.
  • #1085 Fix detection of Windows Phone mobile IE.
  • #1155 Work around websites using user agent filtering
  • #1173 Avoid warning message in debug mode.
  • #1208 Fix CHTML preview from setting chunking parameters even when disabled.
  • #1214 semi-slim official MathJax repository for bower; use bower install components/MathJax for a copy without PNG fonts. Special thanks to @minrk from the IPython/Jupyter team and to the team at components!
  • #1254 Improve examples in /test: add viewport meta tags, improve dynamic examples.
  • #1328 Add package.json for publishing on npm, excluding PNG fonts.